Italian power company Enel through its subsidiary Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA) has began operations at two wind farms with a total capacity of 598MW in the US state of Oklahoma.

The two wind farms are the 300MW Red Dirt wind facility and the 298MW Thunder Ranch wind farm. While the Red Dirt wind farm is located in Kingfisher and Logan Counties, the Thunder Ranch wind farm is located in Garfield, Kay and Noble counties.

The Red Dirt wind farm can generate about 1200GWh of clean energy per year and it is supported by two long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

While T-Mobile has an agreement for supply of 160MW power from the wind farm, the remaining 140MW will be sold to the Grand River Dam Authority.

Under a separate agreement, the Grand River Dam Authority will sell the renewable energy to Google.

The 298MW Thunder Ranch wind farm is expected to generate about 1100GWh of energy annually and has signed a power purchase agreement with AB InBev to sell 152.5MW of the energy generated to the brewer.

This wind farm will also house an operational rooftop solar PV system which can power its operations and maintenance building with 55kWh of power per year. The rooftop system is scheduled for completion in this year’s first quarter.

Enel has invested $420m and $435m on Red Dirt and Thunder Ranch wind farms, respectively.

Enel Green Power global renewable energies division head Antonio Cammisecra said: “We are extremely pleased about becoming the largest wind operator in the state of Oklahoma with the completion of both Thunder Ranch and Red Dirt.

“This milestone is testament to our continued investment in the US energy market, which is strategic for Enel Green Power. We are growing our US footprint through traditional avenues such as organic development and small-scale acquisitions, boosted by more innovative and diversified solutions such as the ‘Build, Sell and Operate’ model and the sale of energy to corporate customers.”

In Oklahoma, Enel also manages other wind farms that include 150MW Rocky Ridge, Chisholm View I & II (300MW in total), 150MW Origin, 150MW Osage Wind, 74MW Little Elk, 200MW Goodwell and 108MW Drift Sand wind farms.

The company claims to have invested more than $2.7bn in the Oklahoma since 2012.

Image: So far, Enel has invested more than $2.7bn in clean energy in Oklahoma. Photo: Courtesy of docucon/FreeImages.com.